The DIY Walmart Grotto
by artsyduckpout
Summary: Bella and Edward are awkward teenagers. They are oblivious to each other's feelings and their friends' matchmaking attempts. Will getting locked in Walmart together finally make them turn their friendship into a beautiful relationship? Most probably, it is Christmas after all! Cute and fluffy, it's a fic about teenage love. AH


**Guys, hope you like it. This was written really quickly and is just some light-hearted Christmas fun so enjoy! **

* * *

**BPOV**

'Yo! Dudes and dudettes! The party can officially start now that I'm here!' Emmett shouted as he pushed open the double doors to the den theatrically.

'Jeez Em, you're such a dolt.' Rosalie said playfully whilst swatting him on the arm.

'Rosie, baby. I'm a national treasure! But I'm sure you already know that since you're dating me!' Emmett explained with a grin before sinking down into the couch next to her and draping an arm around her shoulders.

'Emmett. You're one of my best friends and all but don't get too touchy feely with my sister when I'm sitting on the other side of you. I won't hesitate to clobber you with my Thing fists. There are certain fighting advantages when you have boulders as hands.' Jasper drawled, continuing to watch TV and fiddling with Alice's hair subconsciously.

'Alright Jas. But just so you know, I could probably take you down in a fight. Dude, I can bench 300lbs.' Emmett stated whilst flexing his biceps and receiving a smack to the back of the head from Rosalie.

'Guys. Rose, Em, cool it. Stop flirting. You're already together; you don't need to make the effort anymore.' Edward said, rolling his eyes and huffing in annoyance.

'Aww. Is this hitting a little too close to home, brother dearest?' Alice cooed teasingly, peering over at Edward from Jasper's lap.

'I have no idea what you're talking about.' Edward crossed his arms and sunk back into his armchair with the beginnings of a sulky pout on his face.

'Yeah. Sure you don't.' Rosalie muttered under her breath, checking her nails and glancing at me from her peripheral vision, which of course resulted in me blushing profusely.

'Urm, I'm gonna get us some snacks. Does anyone want anything?' I mumbled, getting up and walking to the kitchen of our den before anyone could speak. 'Actually, s'okay, I'll grab a little of everything'. As I walked into the kitchen, I could hear Alice begin to berate Rosalie and Edward.

'For god's sake, you two! Edward, man up and admit that you've been in love with her since you were 14. 2 goddamn years have passed and you haven't asked her out yet! 2 years! Do you realise that we've managed to utilise all possible methods of matchmaking and now we've resorted to just watching this car crash happen?! If you just took my advice of just frickin' telling her, then you two could be happily loved up like the rest of us!' Alice rambled, he voice rising to a louder pitch with every angry word spoken, and without even pausing to take a breath moved on to Rosalie.

I didn't even need to be in the room to imagine this scene being played out. I could envision Alice, standing with her hip cocked, arms waving in the air manically while Jasper looked on amused from his perch on the couch. Emmett would be laughing raucously, but due to the silence, he's probably engrossed by an X-box game or something of the like. Edward, after being shouted at by his charming twin sister, would be, once again, sulking moodily. If it were me, I would be blushing, but I'm pretty sure Edward is actually incapable of doing so. And Rosalie, I'm sure she's about to get her ass handed to her. Ah yes, here we go.

'And you Rosalie. Stop snickering. This isn't funny! We agreed to stop interfering after locking them in your bathroom together didn't work! Now look what you've done. Bella has actually fled the awkward situation!' Alice finished her rant with an exasperated 'humph!' and plopped back down into Jasper's lap.

Well, after grabbing the snacks, I had a little time to mull over my thoughts. Surely Edward couldn't have been pining for me for 2 years? As cliché as this sounds, he's the guy that every girl wants in the school and I'm, well, me! I'm socially awkward; prone to tripping over my own feet; other people's feet and non-existent cracks in the pavement; and he's the brooding, tortured musician with the crazy hair and hypnotic green eyes. Gah! I'm practically describing him like the leading guy in a romance novel, and it's kind of embarrassing, but I'm a 16 year old girl! How else am I supposed to describe the boy I've been enamoured with for all my teen years? He's just so dreamy, and just- oh my sweet baby Jesus he's coming round that door and oh god Bella, act normal, or rather, don't act awkward and breath in, and out, and in, and out. You can't let him know that you've been thinking about him!

'Bella? You alright? You've been in here for quite a while now, so I just thought…yeah…' Edward shuffled towards me cautiously, as one might approach a baby chipmunk, and proceeded to stare at his feet nervously, his hair flopping into his eyes.

'Yeah, peachy. You know Alice forced me to buy this new lipgloss? It's called Peach Melba and it's supposed to plump up your lips but I was actually really disappointed that it didn't taste like the dessert, but then again, I supposed you're not really supposed to eat lip gloss and…' I trailed off, mortified at the projectile word vomit that I just launched at him.

He was staring at me amusedly, peeking through his messy hair, his hands shoved into his pockets and his lips, oh god, his lips curled into his trademark, and yet rarely seen smirk.

'Oh god. Kill me now.' I groaned, burying my face in my hands and wishing the ground would just open up and swallow me.

'C'mon Bella, rejoin the land of normalcy and bring the snacks that you've so lovingly picked out.' He said, glancing at the haphazard mountain of crisps and chocolate piled on the counter.

* * *

As we entered the den, Alice was standing in the middle of the room facing Rose, Jas and Em, bouncing on the balls of her feet excitedly with a wide Jokeresque beam on her face. As a response to mine and Edward's quizzical expressions, she explained that she had to wait for us announce her news.

'So guys!' Alice chirped happily as soon as Edward and I had sat down. 'I just got a text from our parents saying that they're stranded due to the blizzard on the west coast and won't be getting back from their business meeting until Christmas Day!' She stared at us looking as though she was two seconds away from full blown 'hyperactive squirrel' mode.

'Wait. Ally, how is that a good thing? Every Christmas our families are practically joined at the hip and it's tradition now! And it's the 23rd today so we won't even have time to arrange some cool Christmas plans!' Rosalie said, on the cusp of whining, looking horror-struck at the thought of a boring Christmas.

'Oh Rosie. Can't you see? This Christmas is going to be the best one yet!' After surveying our expressions and coming to the conclusion that we all thought she was squirrel-shit crazy, Alice began to explain. 'For god's sake guys! Tap into the Christmas spirit! So they come home late and they're all tired and they just want a nice home-cooked meal, so we lead them to the dining room and BAM, there's a complete Christmas feast on the table. Then they're like 'Oh my god, this is just so sweet, we never expected anything like this' and then we're like 'Oh, but you haven't seen anything yet!' then we lead them into the living room and BAM, it's decorated like a winter wonderland and before you know it, we're all sitting under the tree, unwrapping presents, singing carols and drinking eggnog. This is going to be the best Christmas ever!' Alice then took a shuddering breath after seemingly forgetting to breathe during her speech and began clapping her hands wildly.

'Riiight…' Rosalie said before turning to the rest of us and motioning with her hand that Alice was crazy.

'Hey! I can see you, you know!' Alice said indignantly.

'Well maybe it'll sink in one day that we don't understand half the things that go through your head!' Rose said back humorously.

'C'mon Ro. This isn't going to be that hard. So it's the 23rd today, we've got plenty of time. We'll start tomorrow. Bella and Edward can go to the supermarket and buy the supplies for the Christmas dinner and Jas and I will be in charge of decorating the living room. You and Emmett can help us decorate until B and E get back and then you'll be helping them cook! I've got this completely planned out in here!' She tapped her head whilst nodding smugly. 'Guys, you know I live for stuff like this! Let me have my fun! It is Christmas after all!' Alice pouted and began to smile happily when she saw Rose nod her head reluctantly.

'Fine, fine. It is Christmas after all.' Rose said in a tone of resignation, looking at the rest of us and mouthing the words 'I'm sorry.'

* * *

_Christmas Eve…_

'Alright guys! Look lively!' Alice said in her best impersonation of a drill sergeant. 'We all know our duties, right?' She glared at each of us, daring us to object. 'Okay! Yay! Let's get started!' She perked up exponentially when she realised we would do exactly as she asked of us yesterday. Well, realistically, who would want to be responsible for turning her into a demonic pixie? We all remember too well the 'Great Paintball Match of Summer '08'. Let's just say, Alice has really good aim when she's angry.

'Bella, Edward. You've got your shopping list, correct? And you know that you've got exactly 2 hours to buy all this food, correct? And you know the consequences if you fail this mission, correct?' Alice asked us, and without giving us time to respond, she forcibly shoved us out of the front door.

I turned to face Edward who was scuffing his Converse against the gravel, the hood of his Muse hoodie up, covering his unruly hair.

He turned to me, smiling slightly, 'well lucky for us, Walmart's within walking distance!' he said with a soft laugh. 'C'mon, we'd better hurry if we want to make this 2 hour deadline!' He rolled his eyes and took his hand out of his hoodie pocket and grabbed mine in one smooth motion, making me swoon internally and, yeah, you guessed it, I blushed.

The entire 10 minute walk felt surreal. My hand was encased in Edward's and we were talking and his voice, oh my word, his voice, it was washing over me and I can't for the life of me remember what we talked about just that his voice was so perfect. He had to keep tossing his head to the side to keep his hair out of his eyes, but he executed this move with such ease and it was unlike other teenage boys running their fingers through their greasy hair, it was just so natural and…dreamy…

We finally arrived at Walmart after my impressive display of teenage girliness and we split up due to Alice giving us separate shopping lists. Upon glancing at the aforementioned list, I realised that Alice had even written a list of preferable brands next to each item. Well, I dreaded to think what the consequences would be if the shop didn't stock 'Sweet Harvest Cranberry Sauce'.

* * *

_1 hour and 45 minutes later…_

'Attention all customers. We will be closing in 15 minutes. We will be closing in 15 minutes. Please ensure you have either paid for your items or are at the checkouts by this time.' The tannoy blared through the air and suddenly people around me were scurrying around quickly, grabbing what seemed to be everything they could lay their hands on. Within 5 minutes, the entirety of Walmart had been transformed into a barren wasteland and all the shoppers had fled to the checkouts. However, I was still carting my shopping trolley aimlessly through Walmart trying to find Edward. The thought of checking out my items and then waiting for Edward outside never even struck me. Which is why, precisely 10 minutes later, we were both locked in.

'Bella, I'm so sorry. I just, I was looking at some really cool plectrums and by the time you'd found me, well you know, they'd locked us in.' Edward said forlornly after his most recent attempt at pushing open automatic revolving doors.

'It's alright, don't worry about it. Stuff like this happens right? It's just made worse because it's Christmas Eve and Walmart doesn't reopen until Boxing Day. And also by the fact that we don't have any cell phone service…' I trailed off, realising just how bad the situation was.

'Aw Bella! Saying it out loud makes this so much more real. Alice is going to castrate me!' Edward said helplessly, tugging on the toggles of his hoodie repeatedly.

'Well. What are we gonna do to pass the time?' I asked, looking around for some form of distraction. Luckily, being forced into this unexpected situation (which was Edward's fault) made me able to converse with him without blushing and stuttering. 'There must be something in here, Walmart stocks everything you could ever think of! D'ya fancy playing a board game, or we could jump on mattresses or maybe build a pillow fort?' I asked Edward, equal parts nervous and excited at spending time with him.

'Bella. I'm pretty sure we'd get into considerably amounts of trouble if we wrecked the whole of this Walmart. Can you imagine the community service hours they'd dole out to us for being 'teenage delinquents'?' Edward said, incredulous at my suggestions.

'Oh come on Edward! Live a little! I'm pretty sure we'd have a court case if we decided to sue for them _locking us in_!' I responded, slightly disheartened by his lack of enthusiasm.

He looked utterly torn for a few seconds before a look of determination crossed his face. 'Okay, I've got a better idea, how about we make this our very own Christmas haven? This will be our own Walmart Christmas! Since I highly doubt we'll be getting freed before tomorrow, we need to have a Christmas to remember.' He said resolutely, looking around calculatingly.

'Okaay, what have you got in mind then?' I replied, amused, ready to participate in any hare-brained scheme he had. After all, even though I could speak coherently around him, it didn't mean I wasn't still slightly loveably (not creepily) obsessed with him.

He turned to me, eyes shining with mischief, 'B? How do you feel about following through and actually cooking this Christmas dinner that we've grabbed the ingredients for? And whilst we're at it, would you fancy building our very own grotto right here in Walmart?' He began making his way towards the kitchenware section tugging our trolleys along behind him and glanced over his shoulder, mock pouting at me when he realised I wasn't following him.

'Edward, are you sure this is a good idea? You don't strike me as the law-breaking type. I wouldn't want you to regret this…' I said, slightly worried about his seemingly spur-of-the-moment decision.

'Oh Bella, you're unaware of most of the things I get up to.' He smirked wickedly after saying this, causing my ovaries to spontaneously combust.

'Right, of course, I, oh…' I breathed, blushing, thoroughly flustered. I scampered towards him looking like a rabid tomato, and when I was finally able to meet his eyes, he looked at me, smiling softly.

'Come on, you nutter. Let's get cooking! I could rival the likes of Michel Roux Jr with my culinary skills!' Edward said, scrambling to find the 'correct' kitchen utensils.

'Right, okay. So, we'll start by shoving the turkey in the oven, yeah?' I asked, cooking being one of the tasks fraught with danger for a klutz like me.

'Bella! One does not 'shove' a turkey in the oven. Cooking is a delicate art, mastered by a select few. In fact, why don't you just sit pretty whilst I prep the food? Then all that's left for tomorrow will be to gracefully place the food into the oven.' He said, gesturing towards the home furniture department directly adjacent.

I wandered over and chose a particularly comfy looking beanbag to sink into and began to happily watch Edward. He managed to find an extension lead and plugged in all the ovens and various other kitchen appliances before tipping out, from the bags, the various food items we, well, hadn't bought. I watched him roll up the sleeves of his hoodie before starting to chop the vegetables. I'm not going to detail his marvellous gastronomic skills, because frankly, I was too distracted by his forearms and his adorably furrowed brow to remember all the insignificant specifics. If I was to estimate, I would guess that he had finished all the preparations in around an hour, which even an experienced chef would have to admit was an impressive feat. I snapped out of my daydreaming when I saw him begin to approach me, by shuffling, of course.

'Hey B.' He said, rolling his sleeves down and flicking his hair out of his eyes. 'Fancy decorating this place with me now? You got any ideas? I'm thinking we should completely transform it into Santa's Grotto. It'd definitely be a surprise for the people who find us!' He said, grinning boyishly.

'You never struck me as the Christmassy type either. I just keep finding out more and more things about you Edward Masen, and truth be told, I really like it.' I said, ending my statement shyly.

'You know Bella, if you want to find out more about me, you could just spend some time with me. Alternatively, you could check out the webpage Alice made for me. She pretty much revealed all my embarrassing secrets there.' He said sarcastically, trudging off to the Christmas decorations aisles.

After grabbing all the trees we could lay our hands on, we set to work stationing them intermittently through Walmart and then proceeded to decorate them. When we ran out of fairy lights, we resorted to using popcorn garlands. We used the entire supply of Christmas baubles and we topped each tree with an angel. When we ran out of angels, we stuck protractors to the top of the trees, marked out certain angles and stuck snowflakes and glitter on them to make our very own Christmas _angles_. We tinselled all the shelves in every aisle and we sprinkled fake snow on some of the shelves, and the entire floor. We even had enough snow left over to make authentic stacks of snowballs in some corners. We cut up strips of wrapping paper to make paper chains and hung them between the aisles. We stuck closed Christmas cards on the ends of every aisle as none of them were addressed to, or from, anyone and we hung up stockings in random places. We dressed all the adult manikins in Christmas jumpers, Christmas slipper boots, Christmas hats and some complete Santa and Mrs Claus outfits; turned the child manikins into elves and we dressed the dog and cat figurines in the pet section as reindeers. The rest of the store was complete, the only thing we needed was the grotto itself. We headed over to the 'Home Improvement' section and grabbed the biggest shed we could find. We dragged it to a large space we had previously vacated and began to build. We constructed the roof and three sides of the shed in order for it to look more akin to a cave. We painted it white; practically bombed it with glitter, and stuck copious amounts of cotton wool to it in order to create the perfect little winter cavern. We even managed to find some inflatable polar bears to stand guard outside it. All in all, with our decorating skills combined, we had created the perfect little winter wonderland. It was a shame we were the only two people that could see it.

'So, I would say that we could exploit our talents as decorators next Christmas and be hired to decorate department stores. What d'ya say Bella?' Edward asked teasingly, lying next to me on a giant inflatable mattress. He turned to face me, propping his head up with his arm.

'I would say that we could even start our own interior decorating firm!' I said mock arrogantly, buffing my nails against my shirt and blowing on them.

Edward chuckled lowly. 'I think we ought to get to bed soon. After all, it is Christmas tomorrow! My gift for you is at home though and I figured receiving no presents would be better than receiving one from Walmart. So I guess I'm sorry that we won't have any gift-exchanging tomorrow.' He said looking slightly abashed.

'Fair enough, it's not like I'd have expected you to carry my gift around with you in case we were to get locked in Walmart.' I said, smiling and turning to face him.

'So, I'd guess we'd better head to the toiletries department and get ready for bed, huh? D'ya wanna sleep here or shall we relocate to a proper bed? And of course, since I highly doubt they keep the heating running when they're shut, we'll have to share a bed to keep warm.' Edward smiled and lazily raked his eyes over me before getting up and strolling towards the area containing dental care.

* * *

_Christmas Day…_

I woke up encased in warmth with an arm draped lazily over my hip. The first thought that crossed my mind was that spooning_ is_ actually all it's made out to be. It really is the best way to wake up. I slowly turned around and gently shook Edward's shoulders to wake him up. It was becoming increasingly harder to not jump him. His lips were parted slightly; he had light stubble covering his jawline; his eyes were lightly closed and with every breath he expelled, his hair shifted away from his face.

'Oh god... Five more minutes please.' Edward groaned sleepily, before simultaneously burying his head into the back of my hair and pulling me closer to him.

'Come on, sleepyhead. We need to get up to cook all the food you prepped yesterday.' I said, reaching back to ruffle his hair lightly.

'Ugh. Fine. You drive a hard bargain Bella. I think that may have been the best night sleep I've ever had. You should come warm my bed more often.' He mumbled, and immediately backtracked when he realised how I could have taken his last sentiment. 'Oh shit. I didn't mean that in a dirty way. I just meant as a heat source. Like a space heater!' He rambled quickly, wide-eyed. 'Oh god, what a way to go Edward, compare a girl to an electrical appliance. That's the sure-fire way to win a girl's heart.' He muttered under his breath, obviously hoping I wouldn't hear him. But before I could wrack my brain for an appropriate response, he'd already leapt out of bed and hurried to the makeshift bathroom we'd created yesterday night.

After what I deemed to be lengthy enough a time, I ambled towards him and began my own morning routine. When we'd finished, we silently walked towards the kitchen together and I could see Edward becoming more reclusive with each step he took. We took our places from yesterday, with him concentrating on cooking, and me taking my previous spot on the beanbag, watching him concentrate on cooking. When the turkey was in the oven and Edward had loaded the dishwasher, I made my way back over to him, intent on destroying the sudden awkwardness filling the air.

'So Edward, the dinner looks good.' I said, mentally berating myself straight afterwards for the lameness of that comment.

'Yeah. I told you my culinary skills are paralleled only by professional chefs. Did you really expect anything less than an almighty feast?' Although his tone was teasing, his eyes betrayed his nerves and he immediately looked away when I held his gaze.

'You realise there's only two of us, right? You've made enough food to feed the entire population of Uzbekistan.' I stated matter-of-factly, before taking a seat in front of the oven to seek warmth.

'Yeah, yeah I-' His sentence abruptly stopped when I tugged hard on his wrist, causing him to crash to the floor directly on top of me.

'Oh my god! Bella, are you okay?' Edward exclaimed, fervently struggling, trying to right himself.

'Oh, calm down. I'm fine. That was unexpected though. I was expecting you to sit opposite me, not lie on top of me!' I said, amused, before dissolving into a fit of giggles. I could see Edward rolling his eyes from above me, and he had stopped trying to get up and was instead just supporting his weight on his elbows, preventing himself from crushing me.

'Edward? What was up with you earlier? I thought we were doing quite well yesterday. I thought we'd finally broken through the slight awkward friendship we had from before, and you know, something felt different yesterday. Like, good different. But then this morning, after your little slip up, you just turned back into the old you. It was like nothing had changed at all. Am I doing something wrong?' I asked, suddenly unsure after laying all my feelings out there in the open. It was now entirely up to him to direct our friendship, or dare I hope, our romantic relationship.

'Urm…It's just…' Edward took in a long, deep breath to steady himself. 'Okay, since you just, well, you know what? I'm just going to say everything I've been holding in for two years.' He looked down, directly at my boobs, before realising that he was lying on top of me and then he abruptly redirected his gaze to my eyes. His eyes were blazing with an emotion I'd never seen before, but whatever it was; it made his irises an even prettier shade of green. And now that I was this close to him, I could see the flecks of gold and even the slight hints of blue in his eyes.

'Okay. So urm, two years ago, I kinda began falling in love with you. Okay, that was a lot blunter and a lot less eloquent than I planned.' He embarrassedly said, but he decided to soldier on. 'Okay. And I never told anyone about it, but I guess Alice found out somehow. Call it a twin thing, if you will, although it could have been because I always looked at you at every available opportunity when I thought you wouldn't notice. So for a few months, it was a physical thing. I was attracted to Bella, the girl with the pretty big brown eyes, the cute little nose, the blush that spread from her cheeks all the way down her neck- oh yeah; you know I'd really like to find out where your blush ends sometime. Sometime soon.' He said, looking at me, eyes filled with lust, causing me to blush and him to groan.

'Anyway, where was I? Oh yeah, and your lip-biting. You know your lip-biting is actually insanely hot. And your figure, it started off petite and girly, with your slightly gangly legs and arms, which may have contributed to your clumsiness, but now, goddamn woman, you're killing me here. And then when I started spending more time with you, I began to fall in love with everything else. Your modesty for starters, and your constant fear that you're not good enough just makes me want to reassure you at every moment that you are utterly perfect. Your snorting laugh is ridiculously cute and you share the same sarcastic sense of humour as me, which makes you so much more attractive. You're generous, you give to the homeless whenever you see them on the streets, and even if it's only a dollar, you stop and chat to them. A girl with a heart like yours is hard to come by nowadays. You're kind and caring, I've never once seen you do something to spite someone and I've only seen you play pranks that are funny and harmless as opposed to the malicious ones so many girls at our school pull. And I'm still discovering new things about you every day, and I wouldn't have it any other way. I guess what I'm really trying to say is, Bella, I love you. I think I have for the past two years and I'm just falling deeper and deeper every day. Now I guess the real question is, how do you feel about me?' He said, baring his entire soul to me, and it was at that point that I understood the emotion in his eyes. It was pure, unadulterated love.

'Wow. I never expected that. Just wow.' I looked up at him in a strange mixture of surprise and elation. He looked at me hopefully and expectantly, hoping for some sort of coherent reply to his confessions of love.

'Yeah, so I'm guessing you're waiting for a reply then, huh?' I watched his face turn into complete incredulous surprise and with an exasperated sigh, he nodded his head.

'Of course, you idiot. Of course I love you. How could I not? Teamed with your good looks and your incredible personality, that speech sealed the deal completely. I'm pretty sure even some lesbians and maybe even some straight guys would consider turning for you, I...' My thoughts became jumbled as Edward began leaning closer towards me, until he eventually delivered a searing kiss that made my lips tingle. When he began nibbling gently on my lips, I ran my hands through his hair, kissing him back, and when I tugged on the ends of his hair lightly, he softly moaned in response. He broke the kiss off and stared lovingly into my eyes.

'So you'll be my girlfriend then?' Edward panted lightly, beaming brightly at me. I nodded my head and was about to reply when a sudden burning smell assaulted my senses.

'Edward…I think the turkey's burning…' Just as I finished my statement, the smoke detectors went berserk and we were immediately drenched with a torrent of water.

'Well, I guess dinner's ruined then?' I asked, smiling sheepishly.

'It looks like it. At least we'll be out of here by the end of today though. The fire departments will have been alerted automatically by that alarm going off. I'm guessing we'll have around 5 minutes before the fire brigade gets here. Can you think of anything we could do to pass the time?' He asked, his eyes flicking between my lips and my eyes.

'Well, since we've built our grotto. Let's just pick up from where we left off.' I replied, digging my hands into his hair again, pulling him back towards my mouth.

* * *

**So there it is! ^_^**


End file.
